LYNX

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Human mutate

Occupation: Mercenary, spy; former forager

Group Membership: Seraph Investigations/Seraph's Angels (Melita Garner, Cassie Lathrop, Seraph)

Affiliations: Vanessa Baker, Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff), Elsa Bloodstone, Courier (Hans Mittlesteadt), Dreaming Maiden, Kingpin (Wilson Fisk), Peregrine, Mr. Takenaka, Wolverine (James "Logan" Howlett);
former confidant (and would-be mate) of Wolverine

Enemies: Buzzard Brothers, Jefferson Chambers (& his robots), Imus Champion, Wyatt Crowley (& his henchmen), the Menace, They (the Easterner, Meridian, the Occidental); former test subject of Dr. Reigert Ilves, S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Nancy Rushman

Place of Birth: Unrevealed location in Antarctica

Base of Operations: Mobile;
   formerly Canadian Wilderness (presumably);
   formerly a S.H.I.E.L.D. safe-house in Maine    former prisoner at Imus Champion's Southern California facility;
   formerly the laboratory of Dr. Ilves, in Wappinger Falls, New York

First Appearance: Marvel Comics Presents I#123 (1993)

Powers/Abilities: The Lynx's body contained the Panacea drug, capable of curing every disease known to man. This may or may not have been neutralized if she consumed the Malaigent formula.

   Lynx is a savage and animal-like fighter. She possesses no education or social skills of any kind, relying almost entirely on instinct.

Height: 5' 6"
Weight: 139 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown

History: (Marvel Comics Presents I#127 (fb) ) - Lynx's beginnings are not completely explained. She was born without an immune system and raised in a germ-free environment. It is unclear whether the organization known as They obtained her at birth, or if they only obtained her for experimentation as an adult. The scientists who raised her wished to learn what would happen if she was kept from any human contact whatsoever at any point in her life.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#129 (fb) - BTS, Marvel Comics Presents I#123) - The German scientist, Dr. Reigert Ilves, an employee of They, decided that the girl, whom they code-named Lynx, presumably due to her feral behavior, would be a perfect subject for his experiments. Reigert had designed the Panacea drug, which was a cure for all known forms of disease, and he injected the Lynx with the only known sample. However, Ilves then was plagued by guilt over the problems that suddenly curing a disease or earth would cause. Ilves set his own laboratory on fire, destroying all evidence of his research, hoping to kill both himself and the Lynx. The adventurer Wolverine, having heard rumors of the Panacea drug, arrived too late to save Ilves, but freed and befriended the Lynx.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#124) - Lynx and Wolverine were both then incapacitated by Courier, an agent of the German government who sought to recover the Lynx for themselves, believing Ilves had used research stolen from them. Couriers attempt to take her to his government was halted by Wolverine, who rapidly recovered and confronted him again. As the two struggled, the Lynx was stolen by the mercenary Peregrine, who was employed by Imus Champion. Champion was dying from a rare disease, and sought the Panacea to cure himself.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#125-127) - The Lynx was delivered to Champion at his Southern California base, who then sent another group of agents, the Fleshtones to kill Peregrine to eliminate witnesses to Lynx's location. Courier and Wolverine, who tracked Peregrine to Champion's base, assisted him in defeating the Fleshtones. The Black Widow, acting on behalf of SHIELD, joined the three others in freeing Lynx. The Widow convinced the others to allow SHIELD to relocate and protect Lynx, but Courier and Wolverine feared that SHIELD would merely imprison and experiment on her further. The two men broke her free, and Wolverine took her to a SHIELD safe-house in Maine.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#128) - Attempting to provide the Lynx with a new life to allow her to coexist with other, Wolverine injected her with the Nancy Rushman personality, previously used on the Black Widow to allow her to go deep undercover in another mission. In this personality, the Lynx believed she was Wolverine's lover, and the two lived happily together in a shack in the woods. However, Wolverine felt guilty about submerging her true personality and betraying her trust, so he discontinued the shots, allowing her to revert to her feral state.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#129) - The Lynx accompanied Wolverine and the Widow to the Anarctic base of They in order to discover the truth behind her origins. There they learned that They had created the Malaigent, a cure for the Panacea that also could kill a large number of people in extremely small doses. They planned to use the Malaigent as a threat against world powers to obtain wealth and/or power. However, Lynx, the Widow, Wolverine, Courier, and Peregrine together succeeded in destroying all data on the Malaigent, and Lynx apparently consumed the only existing sample.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#130) - Wolverine then took the Lynx out to the wilderness and set her free. She believed he was taking her to their new home, and that she would be his mate, but he left her alone, hopefully to live out her life in peace.

(Wolverine IV#20 (fb) - BTS) - At some point Lynx joined Seraph Investigations. They were hired by the Japanese government to protect the Yakuza's Mr. Takenaka during his meeting with the Kingpin (Wilson Fisk) in New York City.

(Wolverine IV#20) - Driving Seraph Investigations' van Lynx picked up Cassie with Kingpin and Mr. Takenaka after they were attacked by the Buzzard Brothers in Central Park. Shortly after they picked up Wolverine, Garner and Seraph as well.

   While the others delivered Takenaka to the airport Lynx interrogated the Buzzard Brothers while giving them a beating. They revealed that they were hired by ninjas to kill Takenaka. Seraph threatened to send Lynx back to the jungle if she couldn't keep it together because Lynx was angry about Wolverine's current girlfriend Melita Garner.

(Wolverine II#304 (fb) - BTS) - Melita Garner called Seraph for a meeting. Seraph wanted to meet her at a parking deck in New York City.

(Wolverine II#304) - Accompanied by Lynx and Cassie Seraph met with Melita, who asked to join her team of Wolverine's ex-girlfriends. Seraph welcomed her to the team.

(Wolverine II#316 - BTS) - Melita called her co-workers at Seraph International in for help because Wolverine was in danger. They stole a flying car from S.H.I.E.L.D. piloted by Cassie.

(Wolverine II#316) - Arriving at Jefferson Chambers' flying fortress Lynx, who was in the flying car's backseat, joined Melita and Seraph to break in. The hologram of Vanessa Baker led them to the prison. They arrived after taking down a few of Chambers' robots and freed Wolverine and Elsa Bloodstone. Afterward they were attacked by more robots, but Wolverine told them to flee while he took care of the robots. Lynx got to the exit with the others and escaped the flying fortress.

(Wolverine II#317) - Lynx and the others women joined Wolverine in finding the Dreaming Maiden in the Gray Island Swampland in Louisiana. They stayed behind like Wolverine told them to when he broke into an abandoned side-wheeler, but came to his aid when Chambers and Crowley sent a horde of henchmen and robots against him. Though they forced Chambers to flee and defeated Crowley, they ultimately failed to save the Dreaming Maiden, who was destroyed by the Menace.

Comments: Created by Scott Lobdell and Dennis Jensen.

Jason Aaron pulled Lynx from obscurity almost 20 years after her first appearance.

Profile by Snood. Updates by Markus Raymond (Wolverine issues)

Clarifications:
No known connection to:

• Lynx of the 19th Century, @ Rawhide Kid I#76
  
• Lynx, the feral creature @ Warheads: Black Dawn#1